Today, the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR) has provided the following updates and status on federal unemployment programs extended by HR 133, the 2021 Continuing Assistance Act (CAA) of 2021. CAA extends all federal programs to from December 27, 2020 to the week ending March 13, 2021.
“We know the importance of these extended benefits for Nevadans and ensuring that they receive them is our number one priority. We are working as fast as we can to implement all federal benefit programs, but we need time to realize this in both systems and to ask the public for patience as we move forward in providing critical assistance to Nevadans, ”said Elisa Cafferata, Department Director Employment, training and rehabilitation.
PUA under the CAA:
The CARES Act created the PUA program in 2020. Self-employed and concert workers could receive up to a total of 39 weeks of benefits. And the original PUA program expired on December 26, 2020.
For PUA, CAA added 11 weeks to the number of weeks that a claimant can receive benefits for a maximum total of 50 weeks in the PUA.
Unlike the regular UI program, the PUA program has a expiration date. According to the CAA, qualified applicants could receive benefits until April 10, 2021 or for a maximum of 50 weeks, whichever comes first.
States with high unemployment rates can offer a single 7-week extension, which some PUA applicants began to receive in 2020. The Department of Labor demanded that Nevada “turn off” this extension of the PUA when the program expired on December 26, 2020 Unfortunately, this complication delayed the full implementation of the 11-week extension to the PUA.
Status: DETR is working with our supplier to ensure that qualified applicants can obtain their weekly benefits for the full 11 weeks of CAA PUA benefits, retroactive to December 27, 2020. DETR predicts that applicants will see these additional weeks on their portals before the end of the month.
PEUC for regular UI:
CAA added 11 weeks of benefits for eligible UI beneficiaries.
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Status: In the normal UI, coding and the 11-week PEUC extension test are in progress. We found that additional programming is needed to track when claimants are exhausting the first 13 weeks of PEUC under the CARES Act, before switching to the 11 weeks PEUC under the Continuing Assistance Act. This computer programming is now being tested. As soon as we pass the test, we can deploy it and payments will begin to be made. Claimants will get every week they are entitled to by continuing to file their weekly claims.
FPUC for regular UI and PUA:
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act has reinstated the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) program, providing an additional weekly benefit of $ 300 for claims paid in the weeks of December 27, 2020 through the week ended on December 13. March 2021.
Status: This benefit schedule was implemented in most programs and payments were issued along with unemployment benefits for eligible applicants in both the UI and PUA, with no additional action required from applicants.
Claimants waiting for an updated schedule to receive the extended benefits from the Continued Assistance Act will receive any overdue weeks of FPUC for which they are eligible, as their benefit payments are updated.
Extended high unemployment benefits:
States with high unemployment rates can offer a single 7-week extension, which some AUC applicants began to receive in 2020. Applicants who started receiving Extensive Benefits (EB) in 2020 can receive the balance of their 7 weeks in 2021, since that the unemployment rate remains.
DETR originally announced that due to Nevada’s high average of insured unemployment, the state would be able to offer an additional 7 weeks of Extended Benefits (EB) to applicants who have exhausted their claims. In the normal UI, DETR was able to immediately offer this benefit to eligible applicants.
Unfortunately, as the PUA program expired on December 26, 2020, the Department of Labor is requiring Nevada to wait 13 weeks before adding 7 weeks of Extended Benefits (EB) to PUA claimants who have exhausted their claims. This could create a two-week break for many PUA recipients.
Status: To avoid this gap, DETR is finalizing emergency regulations that will allow the agency to apply the additional 7 weeks and issue payments without having to wait for the 13 weeks determined by the federal government. Emergency regulations must be signed by the agency’s administration and the governor before being presented to the legislature, which has 15 days to review them. DETR is scheduled to implement these emergency regulations one week before the 11-week expiration of CAA PUA benefits. PUA applicants will be able to receive 7 weeks of EB without interruption of benefits.
LWA:
Status: Although we requested additional funds from FEMA, we did not receive enough LWA funding to pay for week 6. Any remaining funds will be used to pay weeks 1-5 for people who are waiting for judgment or appeal and end up qualifying for the benefit in those. weeks. No action is required from applicants to receive this benefit.
All extensions:
It is important to note that these federal programs generally expire in the week ending March 13, 2021, unless Congress extends them. And the extensions will require additional computer programming. If they wait too late to extend the programs, we may face another gap in providing benefits.
Claimants may not realize that their benefits, even with these extensions, may have temporarily expired due to federal rules. For example:
- A PUA claimant who started the process on 02/02/20, would have received the PUA 2020 for a maximum of 39 weeks on October 31, 2020 – exhausting his PUA claim.
- They would then be eligible for extended benefits, and those 7 weeks would have ended on December 19, 2020 – exhausting their PUA + EB order.
- Under the CAA, the additional 11 weeks will exhaust the week ending March 13, 2021.
DETR encourages applicants to visit http://ui.nv.gov/css.html [ui.nv.gov] and detr.nv.gov/coronavirus [detr.nv.gov] to see important ads and access essential resources. Additional updates will be provided as information becomes available.